Trump lays out clearest global strategy yet in speech to United Nations

Gazette wires

UNITED NATIONS - President Donald Trump used variations of the word 'sovereign” 21 times during Tuesday's speech to the U.N. General Assembly, driving home his belief that countries, not international institutions like the United Nations, will determine the fate of the world by pursuing their own best interests.

The speech offered the most fleshed-out definition yet of the Trump doctrine, a style of big-power nationalism that the president and his advisers also have labeled 'principled realism” and 'America First.” It brushed aside decades of American policy in favor of an approach dominant in the 1940s and 1950s.

'The nation-state remains the best vehicle for elevating the human condition,” Trump declared. 'Our success depends on a coalition of strong and independent nations that embrace their sovereignty, to promote security, prosperity and peace for themselves and for the world.”

The president's address was highly anticipated around the world for signs of how his administration would engage with the United Nations after he had criticized the organization during his campaign as being bloated and ineffective, and threatened to slash U.S. funding.

The speech's emphasis on nationalism was consistent with Trump's campaign themes, but its assertive view of the U.S. role in the world broke with some campaign rhetoric that suggested a more isolationist path.

It contrasted even more directly with the foreign policy approaches of two predecessors.

Gone was former President Barack Obama's focus on climate change and human rights, as well as his concern with the limitations of U.S. military force and emphasis on international organizations.

Instead, the speech featured a denunciation of Obama's nuclear accord with Iran and an emphasis on a need for the United States to consider its citizens before those of other nations.

'You really are seeing ‘America First' campaign rhetoric being turned into a global strategy,” said Frederick Kempe, president and chief executive officer of the Atlantic Council, a Washington think tank.

But the speech also drew a sharp contrast with the foreign policy approach of the last Republican president, George W. Bush, who justified his administration's invasion of Iraq in part by emphasizing the hope that removing dictatorial regimes in the Middle East would lead to more democracy.

Trump, by contrast, downplayed the idea that the United States should intervene to spread democratic systems.

'We do not expect diverse countries to share the same cultures, traditions or even systems of government,” he said. 'But we do expect all nations to uphold these two core sovereign duties: to respect the interests of their own people and the rights of every other sovereign nation.”

As the speech showed, Trump accepts that rival powers like China and Russia will pursue their own goals, which will often run afoul of American values. He treats relationships with those countries as transactional, aimed at serving security or economic goals.

He thanked both Moscow and Beijing for help with sanctions on North Korea and avoided criticism of either by name.

Yet even as Trump preached a live-and-let-live philosophy with America's most powerful rivals, he made exceptions for weaker ones.

He made clear his respect for sovereignty does not cover the behavior of smaller countries he considers 'rogue regimes” - specifically denouncing North Korea, Iran and Venezuela and, to a lesser extent, Cuba.

Trump emphasized that if Kim Jong Un's regime continues to threaten the United States and to destabilize East Asia, his administration would be prepared to defend the country and its allies.

'The United States has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea,” he said, before calling Kim by a nickname he gave the dictator on Twitter. 'Rocket Man is on a suicide mission for himself.”

Trump's address left some in the audience filled with misgivings.

'This was the wrong speech, at the wrong time, to the wrong audience,” Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom told the BBC.

Europeans in Trump's nationalistic camp, however, were gleeful. Nigel Farage, an enthusiastic proponent of 'Brexit,” the vote last year for Britain to depart the European Union, tweeted: 'Trump's UK approval ratings will go up significantly after this UN speech.”

The Tribune Washington Bureau and the Washington Post contributed to this report.